"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

Creating A Linux Certification Program, Part 4

As the community effort to develop a Linux certification effort matures, we need your
help to move the process to the next level. It seems hard to believe that it's only been
four months since the October LG
article that launched this particular initiative. In that time, we have gathered
together over 120 people interested in developing the certification program, joined
together with another group that was working on certification since the spring of 1998 and
have moved the whole process along quite far. (See my November and December articles for a history
of the process.) This month's article will address:

After much discussion, we have arrived at a mission statement that defines the goal of
our certification effort:

We believe in the need for a standardized, multi-national, and
respected program to certify levels of individual expertise in Linux. This program must be
able to satisfy the requirements of Linux professionals, as well as organizations which
would employ or contract them.

Our goal is to design and deliver such a program from within the Linux community, using
both volunteer and hired resources as necessary. We resolve to undertake a
well-considered, open, disciplined development process, leading directly to the
establishment of a recognized and widely-endorsed Linux certification body.

Thanks are due to Evan, Chuck Mead, Tom Peters and a number of other individuals who
hashed this out on the linux-cert mailing list.

As part of our effort to build this new web site, we are sponsoring a contest for a
logo for our project. Several entries have already been received. Please visit http://www.linuxinstitute.org/tli/logos.html
if you have an interest in creating a graphic for the site.

We need you! If we are to pull off a program of this size and scale as a
community effort, we need the help of everyone who may be interested in having a
professional certification program for Linux. Whether you have a large or small
amount of time to help... whether you are a Linux "guru" or a
"newbie"... you can help make this program a reality!

To help out, you need to join one or more of our mailing lists. Before you
decide how you can help, please read about our proposed program (which has been arrived
at over the past four months of discussions) and the structure we are building to
move the whole process forward. I would suggest you also browse the archive of our linux-cert mailing
list to understand the discussions we've had to date.

After reading our information, please plunge on in, join a list (or lists) and help us
out!

Final Thoughts

It's been an exciting time for us all. We've had some great debates and argued many
philosophical and practical points. We have a lot more to do - and will doubtless have
many more debates ahead of us. But above all, it's been a very professional group of
people focused on getting a program accomplished! The market has changed, too. There
is no longer a question of should a Linux certification exist (which our group
never debated - we have only asked for people to be involved if they want to see a
certification program happen), but rather who will define that certification
program. Will it evolve out of the community? Or will it be specified by a
vendor or distributor? We believe it should come from the community and we
hope you will join us in that effort!